The Cincinnati Bengals are hoping for a bounce-back season in 2025. Cincinnati only won nine games in 2024 and barely missed the playoffs. Now one Bengals star has a complaint about the team's 2025 schedule following the NFL's schedule release earlier in May.

Bengals QB Joe Burrow had one major complaint following the 2025 NFL schedule release. Burrow argued that Cincinnati should not have to play in Baltimore on primetime for the fourth consecutive season in 2025.

Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling, admitted that the complaint does have a point.

“It's fair. It's not a one or two years sort of a league where you fix every problem every other year or every two years,” North said. “Once you start getting to the same thing three years in a row, four, or five years in a row, whether it's a short week Thursday on the road or opening on the road. … When trends like that emerge, we probably have to adjust at some point.”

The Bengals will travel to Baltimore to play the Ravens in the late game on Thanksgiving.

While North is sympathetic to Burrow's position, he made it clear that the NFL schedule will never have 100% approval from every NFL team.

“It just ended up as we got down the stretch here, that this was our best schedule, and fully acknowledging that, I'm sure the Bengals fans are a little surprised and probably a little disappointed, which puts them in the same category as all 31 other teams,” North said. “Everybody is just a little disappointed in the schedule makers.”

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NFL wanted to feature Bengals and Ravens in a primetime game during 2025 season

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One benefit the Bengals received from the 2025 NFL schedule is a rest advantage. They will travel the fewest miles of any NFL team in 2025, which gives them a recovery advantage.

North added that the NFL wanted to make sure the Bengals and Ravens landed a primetime game in 2025. The league wanted to showcase two of its best teams.

“They deserve it. You've played your way into these windows,” North concluded. “An MVP-quality quarterback and superstar wide receivers, and we play exciting games. Both Ravens-Bengals games last year were spectacular. We wanted to make sure that we ended up with at least one of them in prime time this year. We got it. I'm sure Bengals fans would have preferred it in Cincinnati, but it should be fun for you guys to ruin Baltimore's Thanksgiving.”

It may not be ideal for Cincinnati, but NFL fans will love seeing the Bengals and Ravens do battle on Thanksgiving.